Early in my teaching career, when life was much simpler, I took my class of year sevens on a walk to an enormous and amazing horse chestnut tree. I gathered them all under the tree and with excited anticipation I asked them to look up (Tree of the Week, 13 April). “What at, Miss?” replied many little voices. The memory still makes me smile.
Penny Snook
Stubton, Lincolnshire
• Single-use plastic has been the fuel of the NHS for decades (Letters, 13 April). Many of the items are used for a few seconds before being binned. Perhaps post-coronavirus there will be a return of sterilisers and the greater use of more environmentally friendly reusable kit.
Sam White
Lewes, East Sussex
• After being forced to put Gordon Bennett on furlough and throw ourselves on the mercy of my in-laws I needed cheering up. Thankfully, watching Trump’s Monday press briefing showed there’s at least one middle-aged man who is dealing with this whole situation worse than I am.
Ian Grieve
Steyning, the canal-free zone that is West Sussex
• For years I sneered at the crude handwritten sign stuck in a hedge on the road between Portumna and Galway in the west of Ireland, which read: “Cow’s crossing”, until I realised, belatedly, that perhaps there was only one cow (Letters, 10 April).
John Horgan
Dublin, Ireland
• TS Eliot was right that “April is the cruellest month”, and the lovely weekend weather emphasised his irony.
Keith Thomas
Great Crosby, Merseyside
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